When I viewed the pluge and gray scale ramps on my Epson 8350 I was not impressed by what I saw. I couldn't even see the 2% gray line but the 4% line showed up. Playing with contrast didn't help either. The brighter gray strips on the gray scale ramp were also all white and I struggled to find a setting to get them to go gray either.

I figured the 2% gray line must not be on the DVD altogether and thought before I tell DVD Essentials about this I had better test this on my 1 year old 1080P 50" Panasonic Vierra. Wow what a difference! Both the 2% and 4% lines were visible and the gray scale ramp looked perfect.

I now officially hate my Epson 8350 and need to know what I can replace it with that will give me better black levels and contrast. The other PJ's I have owned are the Sanyo Z4 and before that the Infocus X1. If memory serves me correctly, the X1 had better contrast than the Z4 but I may not be correct. The X1 was of course was a DLP unit and maybe I should go back to that route.

So are there any PJ's in this forum's price point that have better black levels/contrast on par with a tv? Do I need to spend $5k or more? I'll re-calibrate my Epson again but I am certain I did it correctly or I would have done it wrong on my Panasonic as well.

Did you use the same DVD player for both the 8350 and the plasma? I ask because sometimes it is a setting in the DVD player.

You should see the bars on the 8350. First it would be the brightness setting for the black level and not contrast. The contrast is for the white levels. It can also depends on what color mode you are in and various other settings like gamma. The 8350 does not have as low of a black level as other projectors like the Epson 5020/6020 or the JVCs but that has nothing to do with being able to see the various shades between black and white.

I spent about an hour moving players around and trying all manner of settings within the DVD player to no avail. I made up my mind to buy either a new BD player or new receiver and decided to remove my Onkyo 809 from the equation. Going straight from the BD player to the projector solved the problem. Reconnecting to the Onkyo 809 and the test signals did not display properly. Mad as hell that my $800 receiver had an obvious issue I decided to upgrade the firmware. For whatever reason this solved the problem. I have now been able to properly calibrate my Epson 8350.

The end result hasn't changed as the contrast/black level/shadow detail is not where I want it to be but at least I know I am getting the most out of my projector.